Secrets Revealed
by sterolineotpforever
Summary: Stefan finds out Caroline's news from someone other than her. He confronts her, and they finally talk to each other.


**Secrets Revealed**

It was a few days since Thanksgiving and Stefan was concerned that he hadn't seen Caroline at all. They had talked on the phone but she seemed distracted and skittish, and whenever he tried to rearrange their date she told him she was busy and quickly hang up.

Was she mad at him?

He wouldn't be surprised if she was as he hadn't exactly been the best boyfriend since Valerie told he could have been a father. It was just, he was so close to having the life he'd always dreamed of, to living a simple life with a family until he died. He let the need for revenge cloud his need for Caroline. Plus he hadn't even told her yet, he's told Damon and Lily but not the woman he loved.

God he was such an idiot. He could lose Caroline because he was so caught up in mourning a child that never lived that he had ignored the reason for his life being so good in the last few years.

He had to see her.

Stefan grabbed his jacket and his keys and made his way to Caroline's dorm. He hoped she would forgive him his stupidity.

* * *

A few hours later Stefan arrived at Whitmore. He made his way through the hallway when he thought he would pop into Alaric's office first to see how he was.

He knocked on the door to alert his presence, and smiled slightly at his friend, "Hey, Ric."

Alaric looked up from the papers he wasn't even concentrating on to see Stefan in the doorway. He had been expecting him to drop by at some point, after all it wasn't everyday that you found out that your girlfriend was pregnant with another man and woman's babies. He winced, he wouldn't be surprised if Stefan hit him. He wished he had a bourbon on hand already.

Stefan wrinkled his brow in concern at Alaric's lack of response. He came further into the room, and opened his mouth to ask how he was when Alaric finally spoke.

"How's Caroline doing?" Alaric asked, twisting his hands as he avoided Stefan's gaze.

"She's fine." Stefan answered, surprised that Alaric was asking him about his girlfriend.

"There's fine, and then there's Caroline's the-world-is-falling-apart-but-I'm-gonna-keep-smiling type of fine." Alaric snorts, finally unable to resist and opening his draw to pull out his bottle of bourbon. He took a generous swig to take the edge of his anxiety, and turns back to Stefan, "And if I found out I was carrying two previously dead twins in my dead vampire body, I would freak out."

Stefan hearing must be going because he was sure that Alaric just implied that his girlfriend was pregnant. He stared at him in confusion, his voice barely above a whisper, "What?"

"If I'm totally honest I've been freaking out too." Alaric drank more bourbon, and just carried on speaking still not noticing the shocked look on Stefan's face, "Caroline is pregnant with mine and Jo's babies! Part of me can't help but be happy that they're alive at all, but another part feels bad that this happened to her."

Stefan didn't take in anything after Alaric said that Caroline was pregnant with his and Jo's dead babies. It couldn't be possible. She couldn't be pregnant with a baby that wasn't his, not just after he found out that Valerie had been pregnant with his child but lost it.

Alaric saw that Stefan looked like he'd seen a ghost, his face was white as a sheet, and his eyes were wide as saucers. He frowned in concern, his voice low with worry, "Stefan?"

"I... I need to go..." Stefan backed out of his office and all but vamped away.

Alaric's eyes widened in horror as the realization swept over him.

 _SHIT! Caroline hasn't told him yet._

Alaric grabbed his trusty bottle and necked the whole god damn thing.

Caroline was going to kill him.

* * *

Caroline was lying down on her bed, her hands over her for now flat stomach. Because there were two babies growing within her. Something that she thought would never happen to her because she was a vampire.

It was impossible.

But still true.

Once she'd saw the ultrasounds of two very distant babies it had suddenly become very possible, and very _very_ real.

She was pregnant.

 _Pregnant._

With Alaric and Jo's babies.

She had known for a few days and she still couldn't wrap her head around it. The Gemini's in their last act had made sure that their cover would survive, so they had placed the babies in something that wouldn't die. Her. They were just lucky they hadn't put them in Elena, because would they too have slept until Bonnie died and Elena woke? Or would have Elena given birth to two babies while in a magical coma? The answer would remain unknown.

Caroline took her hands off her stomach to slap the sheet beside her. She was laid in the bed where she and Stefan barely more than a week ago had made love, and since that wonderful morning they had barely seen each other. Since she had learned of her magical pregnancy she had avoided seeing Stefan because she has no idea what she would say to him.

He needed to know. He _deserved_ to know, but... a part of her was hurt that he hadn't told her about Valerie being pregnant with his child yet. She knew now that when Valerie said that Stefan had promised her not to say anything about her big secret it was about the pregnancy.

She didn't know how she felt about that yet. Being boyfriend and girlfriend was a whole different world from being best friends. Back then they told each other _everything,_ and now they were both keeping two monumental secrets from each other.

She would tell him soon. Definitely. Just probably not today.

* * *

Stefan moved on autopilot to Caroline's room. Each step feeling heavy as he drew nearer to her, and with each step he wanted to turn tail and run. But if he did he would for sure lose Caroline for good, and no matter the shock of what he learnt tonight, and what he still kept from her, he didn't want to lose her. He loved her. Another thing he hadn't told her.

He rubbed his hands over his face as he groaned, his life really did suck sometimes.

Finally he was outside her door. His heart raced. Should he knock? Or should he just go in? If he knocked she would know that something was different right away. He waited a moment still debating when he decided to just go for it. He pushed the door open.

Caroline sat up when she it was Stefan. She subtly pulled down her top to cover her stomach. She tried to smile at him, pretty sure it didn't work when he just frowned at her, "Hey... what are you doing here?"

Stefan knew he should be more delicate, he knew he should ease into it, but as his eyes drifted to her stomach, and he listened with his entire being, that went straight out the window. He could hear three heartbeats in the room. He caught her gaze and just blurted out, "You're pregnant? With Ric's babies?"

Caroline sucked in a breath and her eyes went wide. She instinctively covered her stomach with her hands, her face looking guilty as she was busted. She was shocked that he knew, who could have been the one to tell him, the only people that knew were Matt, Valerie, and Alaric.

"There's no point denying it, Caroline." Stefan crossed his arms over his chest, "I can _hear them._ "

Later she would blame it on the shock of Stefan knowing before she could tell him. That was the only explanation she had for what she blurted out, "Surprise! I'm pregnant with Ric and Jo's kids." A fake smile covered her lips as she shrugged with her arms wide apart, "Congratulations! You're gonna be a stepfather." She tilted her head and frowned confused, "Or would it be step boyfriend?"

Stefan just stared at Caroline in hurt, "How can you joke about this?" He shook his head in anger, his eyes narrowing as he met her eyes, "Scratch that. How could you not tell _me_?"

It was out of her mouth before she could stop it, "How could you not tell me about your lost chance of fatherhood with Valerie?"

Stefan blanched, his Adam's Apple bobbing as he swallowed hard, "How... who told you?"

"Valerie. Who else would it be?" At the way he avoided her gaze she knew that he had told someone already. She swallowed down her tears at the hurt that pierced her heart, "Who have you told?"

Stefan hated the hurt he heard in her tone knowing that he put it there. He couldn't meet her eyes as he muttered, "Damon and Lily."

 _Lily,_ Caroline mouthed to herself. Stefan had told his estranged _mother_ before he told her. A knife twisted in her heart. She blinked back tears, her voice tight with the strain of holding back her pain, "Who told you?"

"Ric. He didn't know that I didn't know and asked about how you were doing after finding out you were pregnant." Stefan narrowed his eyes, "Who else knows?"

"Matt and Valerie." Caroline sighed, she really didn't want to be having this conversation as she was still dealing with the news herself.

"Matt? _Matt_!" Stefan didn't think he'd felt so hurt before, "Matt knew before me? Matt, who is usually the _last_ to know, knew that my girlfriend was pregnant before I did."

Caroline had enough of Stefan's tone. She pushed herself off the bed, crossed her arms defensively across her chest, and leveled her boyfriend with a glare, "I'm sorry, what was that? I couldn't hear you over your hypocrisy. I was the last to know that my boyfriend knocked up his first love, and didn't tell me when he found out."

"It was a lot to process." Stefan defends himself, not willing to back down when she was guilty of the same thing, "I could have been a father!"

"And I'm about to be a mother!" Caroline screamed back, her eyes so wide that her tears over spilled, "I am scared and pregnant with children that aren't _mine_!"

That shut Stefan up. He hadn't even asked her how she was pregnant. He truly was the worst boyfriend ever. He hadn't even asked Caroline how she was. He was being selfish, and he was never selfish with Caroline. The guilt hit him hard, especially when he saw the tears sliding down her cheeks. All he wanted to do was wipe them away and pull her into his arms but he didn't think she would want him to. Before he could open his mouth to apologize Caroline kept going.

"When Jo was _dying_ her creepy family performed a spell to transfer the babies to _me_ so that the Gemini's would live on." Caroline roughly ran her fingers through her hair, "Valerie recognized the chant because she tried to use it to save your baby but because it was only her and not an entire coven so it didn't work." She sat on the edge of her bed, her wet eyes staring at the floor, "Valerie told Ric, gave him hope that his kids were alive, and did some locator spell thingy."

Stefan spoke for the first time, not trusting his voice if he spoke any louder, "And how did that lead to..."

"Me being the one that had the babies? The blood on the map led straight to me." Caroline couldn't help but laugh, her life was weird and it continues to get weirder every day, being pregnant was just the latest chaos that her life had become, "Ric and I then took a test. It was negative. And while relieved, I felt bad for getting his hopes up."

Stefan ignored the hurt that Alaric was with her when she took the test, and couldn't help but ask in confusion, "So you're not pregnant?"

"Oh I am." Caroline's hand one again went to her stomach as the image from the ultrasound swam before her eyes, "Things happened, more false hope at the scan as we wanted to be sure either way if I was pregnant or not. There was no baby on the screen and then Valerie realized she'd cloaked the babies."

Stefan widened his eyes, why would have Valerie cloaked the babies? Just what the hell had happened while he had been hell bent on revenge and turning his mother away from Julian. Before he could even ask Caroline waved her hand at him shushing his questions.

"And that's basically it." Caroline couldn't sit still and began to pace the room, "I have two tiny humans growing inside of me, and I have no idea when to expect them. When Jo died she was almost full term. Does this look full term to you?" She lifted up her top to show her trim stomach.

Stefan stared at the abdomen that only a week ago he had kissed his way down. Was she pregnant then? The thought was unsettling. He didn't know whether to answer Caroline or not, unsure if she wanted him to answer.

"No, it doesn't." Caroline dropped her top with a huff, continuing her pacing as she freaked out, "So does that mean that since that awful night they have been growing inside of me? How could I not notice something like that? I have super hearing! How could I not here the two extra beats inside of me?"

"Only when you listen." Stefan couldn't help but smile as he recalled their conversation in a hospital hallway. It had been the first time she'd confessed her feelings, and also the first time she'd ever walked away from him. Also it was the night she'd told him she hated him, and he felt as if she'd taken his heart with her when she walked away. It had been the worst thing he'd heard in a long time.

 _I think we both know that I never really hated you_

He didn't, but it was the best thing he'd heard in a long time when she's said it. She was so beautiful and lovely and just made him feel like he could finally breath again, that even though he'd resolved to be patient only the day before he couldn't resist that look in her eyes and he leaned in and kissed her.

Caroline's thoughts had led her in the same direction, thinking about that long ago heartbreaking night in a hospital hallway. Her eyes met Stefan's, and suddenly everything melted away and she was finally looking at her best friend and confessed easily, "I don't even know how far along they are."

Stefan didn't hold back anymore, and he was across the room before she'd even finished her sentence. He pulled her into his arms, and the stress hurt and pain of his own lost baby finally began to leave him as he threaded his fingers through Caroline's hair.

He was such an idiot.

Of course he'd needed Caroline this whole time. She was his best friend before she was his girlfriend and she had never once judged him for anything he'd done. She'd just given him an open look and listened with a smile. He should have told her, "I'm sorry. I should have told you."

Caroline melted in to Stefan's embrace. She didn't realize how much she'd missed him until he was finally close to her again. She smiled at his apology, and squeezed him tighter, "I'm sorry too. I should have told you. I was just..."

"In shock?" Stefan finished for her.

Caroline nodded.

"So was I, but then it turned into thoughts of revenge..." Stefan couldn't stop the smile that spread across his lips as Caroline laughed. It felt good to have her back in his arms.

Caroline wrapped her arms around his neck as she pulled back to look in her eyes still chuckling, "So that you didn't have to think about the emotional pain."

Stefan shook his head with a smile, "Sometimes I forget how well you know me."

Caroline smiled back, "Well I am your best friend."

"No." Stefan smirked as he laid his head against hers, "You're my girlfriend."

Caroline smiled, then her eyes fluttered closed as a he finally felt the touch of his lips against hers. It had been too long since she's kissed her boyfriend.

Stefan moaned as he tasted her again after too long without her. He would never go so long without seeing her again.

And whatever was about to happen, whatever needed to be sorted out from her unexpected pregnancy, from now on they would face it together.

It would be a tragedy to lose what they'd fought so hard to have because of secrets and insecurities.

THE END

AN - So this was a result of a conversation between Lizzi3_Styles and me on Twitter. I just had the urge to write it. Thanks for the inspiration princess ㈴2


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